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Revere Man Pleads Guilty, Sentenced for Using False Identities to Collect More Than $164,000 in Unemployment Benefits

BOSTON - Today, a Revere man pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to charges he schemed to collect more than $164,000 in unemployment benefits by using false identities. Domingos Gomes, also known as Domingos Correia, age 52, pled guilty to charges of Unemployment Fraud (286 counts), Larceny Over $250 (15 counts), and Identity Fraud (4 counts). Following the change of plea, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Peter Lauriat sentenced Gomes to serve 18 months to two years in State Prison, followed by supervised probation for three years and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $164,412.

Beginning in February 2003 and occurring on diverse dates through June 2007, Gomes perpetrated a scheme in which he fraudulently applied for, received and deposited more than $164,000 in unemployment benefit checks from Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development's Division of Unemployment Assistance (EOLWD\DUA). As part of this scheme, Gomes used the names and/or aliases, Domingos Gomes and Domingos Correia, and the names and personal information of acquaintances and relatives to initiate the unemployment claims without their knowledge. Each claim Gomes submitted reported individual employment separations from DuGomes Corp., a corporation purportedly owned by Gomes that had involuntarily dissolved in 1990. Once the claims were processed, Gomes signed the benefit checks over to himself for deposit.

Further investigation uncovered that the EOLWD\DUA issued unemployment benefit checks in response to 15 unemployment claims by nine individuals who reported employment separations from DuGomes Corp. During the course of this scheme, Gomes worked in concert with two other individuals to fraudulently collect benefits totaling $200,537.

For each week that Gomes collected unemployment benefits, under his name, alias, and or false identities, he notified the EOLWD\DUA that the he or the claimant was not working, but was able to work and was available for work. As a result of this scheme, Gomes fraudulently collected benefits totaling $164,412.

Indictments were returned against Gomes on October 11, 2007. On October 18, 2007, Gomes was arrested and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court at which time he entered a plea of not guilty and was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail. Today, Gomes entered a change of plea to guilty and was sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court.

To report unemployment fraud to the DUA, call the toll free hotline at 1-800-354-9927 anytime, 24 hours a day and callers may report suspected fraud anonymously.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Adams of Attorney General Martha Coakley's Insurance & Unemployment Fraud Division, with assistance from investigators Pepper Daigler of the Attorney General's Office and Paul Griffin of the EOLWD\DUA.